Roger Fuller Harrington (born December 24, 1925) is an American electrical engineer and

professor emeritus ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...

Syracuse University Syracuse University (informally 'Cuse or SU) is a Private university, private research university in Syracuse, New York. Established in 1870 with roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church, the university has been nonsectarian since 1920. Locate ...

. He is best known for his contributions to

computational electromagnetics Computational electromagnetics (CEM), computational electrodynamics or electromagnetic modeling is the process of modeling the interaction of electromagnetic fields with physical objects and the environment. It typically involves using computer ...

with his development of method of moments (MoM). Harrington's 1968 book, ''Field Computation by Moment Methods'', is regarded as a pivotal textbook on the subject.

Biography

Harrington was born on December 24, 1925, in

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from Sou ...

. He started majoring in electrical engineering in 1943 at

; his studies were interrupted in the following year by

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. During this time, he served as an instructor under the

Electronics Training Program The Electronics Training Program (ETP) was the name commonly used for an unusual, difficult, and selective training activity of the United States Navy during World War II. The ETP combined college-level classroom instruction with laboratories i ...

at the U.S. Naval

Radio Materiel School The Radio Materiel School (RMS), operated by the United States Navy, was the first electronics training facility of America’s military organizations. During the 1920s and 1930s, it produced the core of senior maintenance specialists for the Navy� ...

in Dearborn, Michigan, while working as an

electronics technician Electronics technicians help design, develop, test, manufacture, install, and repair electrical and electronic equipment such as communication equipment, medical monitoring devices, navigational equipment, and computers. They may be employed i ...

. He completed his studies after the war, receiving B.S. and M.S. degrees in 1948 and 1950, respectively. Briefly remaining at Syracuse University as a research assistant and instructor, he started his doctoral studies under Victor H. Rumsey at

Ohio State University The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best pu ...

, receiving his PhD in 1952. Harrington returned to Syracuse University following his doctoral studies, working there as a professor until his retirement in 1994. Following his retirement, he briefly worked as a

visiting professor In academia, a visiting scholar, visiting researcher, visiting fellow, visiting lecturer, or visiting professor is a scholar from an institution who visits a host university to teach, lecture, or perform research on a topic for which the visitor ...

University of Arizona The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it was the first university in the Arizona Territory. ...

. During his tenure at Syracuse University, he has worked on research projects for the

U.S. Army Signal Corps The United States Army Signal Corps (USASC) is a branch of the United States Army that creates and manages communications and information systems for the command and control of combined arms forces. It was established in 1860, the brainchild of M ...

Office of Naval Research The Office of Naval Research (ONR) is an organization within the United States Department of the Navy responsible for the science and technology programs of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps. Established by Congress in 1946, its mission is to pla ...

General Electric General Electric Company (GE) is an American multinational conglomerate founded in 1892, and incorporated in New York state and headquartered in Boston. The company operated in sectors including healthcare, aviation, power, renewable energ ...

and the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research. He has also held visiting professorship positions at

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Unive ...

in between 1959 and 1960,

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

in 1964 and the

Technical University of Denmark The Technical University of Denmark ( da, Danmarks Tekniske Universitet), often simply referred to as DTU, is a polytechnic university and school of engineering. It was founded in 1829 at the initiative of Hans Christian Ørsted as Denmark's fir ...

in 1969. Harrington is a recipient of

IEEE Centennial Medal The IEEE Centennial Medal was a medal minted and awarded in 1984 ''to persons deserving of special recognition for extraordinary achievement'' to celebrate the Centennial of the founding of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (I ...

, IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society Distinguished Achievement Award and IEEE Electromagnetics Award in 1984, 1989 and 2000, respectively. In 2014, he was awarded the Benjamin Franklin Medal in electrical engineering for his contributions to the study of electromagnetics. He currently resides in

Wheaton, Illinois Wheaton is a suburban city in Milton and Winfield Townships and is the county seat of DuPage County, Illinois. It is located approximately west of Chicago. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 52,894, which was estimated ...

with his daughter.

Research

Harrington has published two standard engineering textbooks, ''Introduction to Electromagnetic Engineering'' in 1958 and ''Time-Harmonic Electromagnetic Fields'' in 1961. In 1968, he published ''Field Computation by Moment Methods'', which introduced the unified and generalized theory of method of moments (MoM), an integral equation method for solving electromagnetic problems. The development of the method stemmed from Harrington's initial interest in using electromagnetic fields in

thermonuclear fusion Thermonuclear fusion is the process of atomic nuclei combining or “fusing” using high temperatures to drive them close enough together for this to become possible. There are two forms of thermonuclear fusion: ''uncontrolled'', in which the re ...

research. Harrington further developed the method in his future publications; method of moments later became one of go-to methods in the study of

antennas In radio engineering, an antenna or aerial is the interface between radio waves propagating through space and electric currents moving in metal conductors, used with a transmitter or receiver. In transmission, a radio transmitter supplies a ...

, integrated circuits and

waveguide A waveguide is a structure that guides waves, such as electromagnetic waves or sound, with minimal loss of energy by restricting the transmission of energy to one direction. Without the physical constraint of a waveguide, wave intensities de ...

s, among others. Harrington's further work included the study of

radiation In physics, radiation is the emission or transmission of energy in the form of waves or particles through space or through a material medium. This includes: * ''electromagnetic radiation'', such as radio waves, microwaves, infrared, vi ...

and

scattering Scattering is a term used in physics to describe a wide range of physical processes where moving particles or radiation of some form, such as light or sound, are forced to deviate from a straight trajectory by localized non-uniformities (including ...

in bodies of revolution, dielectric scattering, field integral equations and theory of characteristic modes. Harrington also expanded

Lan Jen Chu Lan Jen Chu (August 24, 1913 – July 25, 1973) was a noted electrical engineer and a professor of electrical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Chu is noted for his work on the fundamental limitations for small ante ...

and

Harold Alden Wheeler Harold Alden Wheeler (May 10, 1903 - April 25, 1996) was a noted American electrical engineer. Biography Wheeler was born in Saint Paul, Minnesota, to William Archibald Wheeler and Harriet Marie Alden Wheeler (a descendant of John and Prisc ...

's theory on the fundamental limits of electrically small radio antennas;

Chu–Harrington limit In electrical engineering and telecommunications the Chu–Harrington limit or Chu limit sets a lower limit on the Q factor for a small radio antenna. The theorem was developed in several papers between 1948 and 1960 by Lan Jen Chu, Harold Whee ...

, which yields a lower bound for the

Q factor In physics and engineering, the quality factor or ''Q'' factor is a dimensionless parameter that describes how underdamped an oscillator or resonator is. It is defined as the ratio of the initial energy stored in the resonator to the energy ...

of a small radio antenna, is named after him.

Selected publications

;Articles * * * * * * * * * * * ;Books * * * ;Book chapters *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Harrington, Roger F Living people 1925 births Scientists from Buffalo, New York 20th-century American engineers Electrical engineering academics Syracuse University College of Engineering and Computer Science alumni Syracuse University faculty Ohio State University alumni Microwave engineers IEEE Centennial Medal laureates People from Wheaton, Illinois United States Navy personnel of World War II University of Arizona alumni American electronics engineers American telecommunications engineers American engineering writers 20th-century American non-fiction writers American male non-fiction writers Fellow Members of the IEEE 20th-century American male writers